NOTE: This post has been updated with an Appendix – VJT. My post yesterday, Order is not the same thing as complexity: A response to Harry McCall (17 June 2013), seems to have generated a lively discussion, judging from the comments received to date. Over at The Skeptical Zone, Mark Frank has also written a thoughtful response titled, VJ Torley on Order versus Complexity. In today’s post, I’d like to clear up a few misconceptions that are still floating around. 1. In his opening paragraph, Mark Frank writes: To sum it up – a pattern has order if it can be generated from a few simple principles. It has complexity if it can’t. There are some well known problems with Read More ›

SSDD is an acronym for “Same Stuff Different Day”. In debate with Darwinists, it’s always the same stuff, different day. SSDD can be also an acronym for Space Shuttle Denying Darwinists — that is to say Darwinists that are so against ID that they will even deny that Space Shuttles are intelligently designed. Such people suffer from SSDD syndrome. There is no remedy for their philosophical malady. Over at ARN the following exchange happened which I summarize: Sal: Is a man-made design an example of intelligent design? Alan Fox: NO!!! Sal: Given what you said, is the Space Shuttle an example of intelligent design? How about GMOs? Alan Fox: Nothing is an example of intelligent design unless you want to Read More ›

For the past several weeks, there has been an exchange that developed in the eduction vs persuasion thread (put up May 9th by AndyJones), on first principles of right reason and related matters.  Commenter RDF . . .   has championed some popular talking points in today’s intellectual culture. We can therefore pick up from a citation and comment by Vivid, at 619 in the thread (June 12th), for record and possible further discussion. Accordingly, I clip comment 742 from the thread (overnight) and headline it: _____________ >>. . . let us remind ourselves of the context for the just above exchanges, by going back to Vivid at 619: [RDF/AIG:] And once again I must remind you that you are mistaken. Read More ›

Over at John Loftus’ Website Debunking Christianity, contributor Harry McCall has put up a short post entitled, The Theology of a God as an Intelligent Designer Exploded! (11 June 2013). He writes: Christian apologists claim that the detail of the universe proves the creation of a master designer: God. However, as you can plainly see in this video, a man made dumb frequency generator can create many different detailed intricate designs. Enjoy! On his post, he has embedded a Youtube video of the Chladni plate experiment. It’s only about three=and-a-half minutes long, but I can guarantee it will leave you spellbound. What I found funny when I saw McCall’s post recently was that the same video was also posted on Read More ›

Some proteins are fluorescent—shine a light on them and they glow. And as usual nature gives us all kinds of variations including different colors. These proteins are wonderful tools for molecular biologists who use them to tag and track molecular machines at work in the cell. Now another type of fluorescent protein has beendiscovered. Not only is it from a vertebrate (the Japanese eel), but its fluorescence mechanism is different (it uses bilirubin, the four-ring molecule that we shouldn’t have too much of). As one researcher put it, “It’s totally different. There’s not anything you can point to that’s the same.”  Read more

Irreducibly Complex systems are those systems (man-made or otherwise), where removal of critical core parts results in malfunction. By way of contrast, fault tolerant systems allow removal of parts or entire sub-systems, yet intended function is still retained. Removable parts or subsystems in fault tolerant architectures are also contrasted with useless parts which serve no purpose. Like spare tires, removable parts in a fault tolerant systems can still serve a purpose even if never used. From Wiki on Fault Tolerant Intelligent Design: In engineering, fault-tolerant design is a design that enables a system to continue its intended operation, possibly at a reduced level, rather than failing completely, when some part of the system fails. A fault tolerant system can be Read More ›